Gulf Air, the sole national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, is all set to start its first services to Hyderabad from tonight (July 1) with the inaugural flight taking off from Bahrain International Airport at 00.05am.

This follows the airline’s successful launch of its services to China’s commercial capital Shanghai on June 16, said a top airline official.

“Hyderabad has been one of our favourite destinations in our expansion plans for quite sometime and I am glad we were able to link Hyderabad- the emerging IT and bio-tech hub with “Business Friendly” Bahrain,” said Gulf Air chief executive officer Björn Näf, on the eve of the launch.

"This new route is another example of successful and long-established bilateral relationship between Bahrain and India and, Gulf Air, as the national carrier of the Kingdom, is proud to be a part of this growing relationship."

"Hyderabad is our eighth Indian destination and we hope to further expand our relationship by adding two more destinations in India within a year," he added. 

Highlighting Gulf Air's nearly fifty year-old relationship with India with its first flight to Mumbai in 1960 – one of the first few foreign airlines to operate into India at that time- Näf commented, “India is a booming economy and Hyderabad, as the fifth largest Indian city, is full of opportunities and an important market for us.”

The daily non-stop service between Bahrain and Hyderabad will be served by an Airbus A320-200 with business and economy class providing two-way connectivity to many other major markets within the region.

“We are glad to have launched our services to Hyderabad, which has already become popular with our customers,” says Gulf Air director network Hashim Mahmood.

“Our flights to Hyderabad during the first month of our operation have already reached an average booking of over 80 per cent and are nearing full capacity.”

Gulf Air operates over 275 flights per month offering as much as 50,000 seats to eight Indian destinations- Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram.-TradeArabia News Service